No survivors from plane crash

KALISPELL, Mont. - The wreckage of a small plane missing since Sunday was found Wednesday afternoon southwest of Dixon.

There were no survivors.

A law-enforcement officer rappelled down from a Malmstrom Air Force Base helicopter and determined all four people on board the plane had died.

They were Daily Inter Lake reporters Melissa Weaver and Erika Hoefer, both of Kalispell, and two Missoula men, pilot Sonny Kless and Brian Williams.

The area is inaccessible by helicopter, so ground crews will hike in to recover the bodies.

The wreckage was spotted by a pilot with U.S. Customs and Border Protection around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in rough terrain just inside the Sanders County line, according to Lake County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Carey Cooley.

Williams was born and raised in Coeur d'Alene and was a friend of both Melissa Weaver and Kless and had flown with Kless before.

His parents, Gary and Donna Williams of Coeur d'Alene, were still in Montana on Wednesday, said Brian's aunt, Marilyn Kennedy.

"He is a unique and magnificent person. He's a philosopher, athlete, mountaineer, musician, plays guitar, sings and writes songs," his father said.

"He's an amazing, amazing person."

The loss of Brian is a blow to the family, Kennedy said, especially since his cousin died last year in a football accident.

"He (Brian) was just a great kid," Kennedy said. "There were four of them (cousins) born that summer who were really close, so it's hitting the kids really hard."

A vigil is planned tonight at 9 at the bandstand in Coeur d'Alene City Park, she added, where anyone is welcome to come and pray.

"We do have a lot of support," Kennedy said.

Rebecca Prochaska, who knew Williams when he attended school in Coeur d'Alene and is friends with his relatives, said "he meant a lot to a lot of people."

"I know he was a really, really good person and had a huge impact on a lot of people, and will continue to," she said.

Williams would have been a second-year law student in the fall. He had an undergraduate degree in environmental studies and was a staunch environmentalist.

According to Joe Roberts, one of his best friends, "There was nobody that wasn't just blown away by him. He's about justice in the highest sense."

His parents are taking care of Brian's dog, Charlie, a chocolate Lab.

The crash site is southwest of Dixon at the head of a drainage that flows north into the lower Flathead River.

The foursome had been on a sightseeing flight that ranged north to Glacier National Park before flying along the Swan Mountain Range, across Flathead Lake and over the National Bison Range at Moiese.

The 1968 Piper Arrow, a blue-and-white single-engine plane, last was tracked by radar about 300 feet above ground level west of the Bison Range 80 miles south of Kalispell.

It went off the radar screen at 4:02 p.m. Sunday.

Search efforts in the air, on the ground and on the lower Flathead River had been under way since Monday.